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Ronald Dellow  

8 Songs From The I Ching

Duration: 18' 00" Year: 1998
a cycle for high voice and oboe

Maria Grenfell  

A Pinch of Time...

Duration: 18' 00" Year: 1991
five songs for baritone (or medium voice) and piano

Denise Hulford  

A prayer for the twenty-first century woman

Duration: 15' 00" Year: 1999
for bass clarinet, bassoon and 2 violoncellos

David Hamilton  

A Shakespeare Garland

Duration: 17' 00" Year: 1999
for SAATB choir, guitar and piano

  • Programme Note

    Every now and then the deputy musical directors of Auckland Choral Society are invited to jointly conduct a concert. In 1999 this took the form of a ’subscriber’s bonus’ concert, containing works requiring minimal accompaniment forces. Early discussions lead us in the direction of a Shakespeare-themed concert. In addition to conducting some American settings of Shakespeare, I decided to write a new cycle using Shakespearean texts. Given the nature of the intended concert, I wanted to write a work which was immediately approachable and contained an element of fun. My original intention was to compose a cycle based on references to flowers in Shakespeare’s writings, as I had a copy of a book which detailed them. However, it soon became apparent that many references were part of texts which were not suitable for a musical setting : some were conversational and others merely a passing mention of a flower. I broadened my scope a little and fashioned a sequence of seven texts which all refer in some way to things botanical and/or seasonal. The first text is from ‘As You Like It’ and sets the well-known ‘it was a lover and his lass’ in a jazzy idiom. A complete contrast of mood is presented in ‘Come, buy’ from ‘The Winter’s Tale’, where the words detail a variety of items which might be purchased to charm a lady. The third piece is a short setting of ‘Hark, hark the lark’ from ‘Cymberline’. Unlike Schubert’s well-known setting, this lark is rather boisterous and rowdy! The music owes more than a little to mid-twentieth century film music, perhaps a film involving a frenetic chase sequence! The centerpiece of the cycle is a setting of Shakespeare’s best-known sonnet ‘Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? (sonnet 18). Here the women’s voices are heard on their own, with the 2nd altos given a rare chance to take the limelight. The fifth piece is a reflective setting of ‘I know a bank whereon the wild thyme blows’ from ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’. Initially unison voices present the melody, breaking into harmony only for the second half of the song. Throwing caution to the wind, the sixth piece is a madcap, cartoonish setting of ‘When daisies pied’ from ’Love’s Labour’s Lost’. Where better to end the cycle than with the ‘flower-power’ era of the 1960’s and a swinging version of ‘Under the greenwood tree’ from ‘As You Like It’, using just about every harmonic cliche of the music of that time. ‘A Shakespeare Garland’ was written for, and is dedicated to, Auckland Choral Society who gave the first performance.

  • Availability

Neville Hall  

a splinter of silence in the belly of time

Duration: 15' 00" Year: 1994
for string quartet and clarinet

Craig Utting  

Adrift

Duration: 15' 00" Year: 1999
for four cellos

Christopher Blake  

Ancient Journeys

Duration: 19' 00" Year: 1991
three pieces for solo piano

Denise Hulford  

Bold as Brass

Duration: 15' 00" Year: 1992
for brass quintet

  • Instrumentation
    trumpet in C; trumpet in B flat; horn in F; tenor trombone; tuba
  • Programme Note

    Bold as Brass is written for a brass quintet consisting of two trumpets, horn, trombone and tuba. The work is designed to show to best advantage the varying qualities and abilities of each of these instruments, and accordingly there are solo passages and cadenzas for each. Hulford has experimented with each line as a “voice” and has manipulated and blended the differing timbres to excellent effect. The composition is in 3 movements. The first and third of these are reasonably fast and are somewhat aggressive in nature while the second is slower and reflective. The world premiere of the work occurred in Seoul, Korea, in October 1993 by members of the Korean National Orchestra. The work has not been performed in its entirety in New Zealand.

  • Availability

Brigid Ursula Bisley  

Come Back Safely

Duration: 16' 00" Year: 1995, r. 1999
for soprano, string quintet and percussion

Anthony Ritchie  

Coming to It

Duration: 19' 00" Year: 1999
for orchestra and speaker - music with poems by Sam Hunt

  • Instrumentation
    2*2*2* (doubling alto sax. in E flat) 2; 2200; 2 perc.; guitar (amplified); strings. Percussion: tam tam, bass drum, large suspended cymbal, wind chimes,glockenspiel, xylophone, bongos, 2 woodblocks (large and small), drum kit (including suspended cymbal, bass drum, small tom tom
  • Programme Note

    Coming to It was commissioned by the Wellington Sinfonia (now Vector Wellington Orchestra) to collaborate with Sam Hunt. The poems and music speak from the heart about the everyday issues and concerns of ordinary people. There are poems about mothers, fathers, lovers, children and dogs. The poems touch on life and death, and the title incidents between that on the surface seem insignificant but have meaning for those involved. The scene is set in the opening poem, Coming to It. Some of the music is bluesy in character, as in the Plateau Songs, and some is folksy in style, as in A White Gentian, where the guitar and flute play a duet. Occasionally the music specifically describes the text, as in the hammering, migraine-like You House the Moon.

  • Availability